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I’m sure you’ve seen the zebra cake around the internet at some point in your surfing life. I discovered it when only two results showed up in a yahoo search circa 2000, after I followed a photo of it. Amazing how there are now thousands of zebra cakes on the internet! That said, I’m 100% sure you’ve seen peanut butter cup brownies before, so no need to touch on those.

Before I get to either, a little preface.

The above is a transitional header and name (desserts and line drives was too long). I still haven’t decided where I’m going to go with this, but I got sick of looking at that ugly, old header.

Back in January of 2011, my computer crashed. The hard drive was annihilated. I lost all of my photos. Some of those photos were of several amazing and somewhat laborious, treats, three of the treats that I especially mourn to this day. One was a beautiful Tourte Milanese – layers of colorful, roasted red peppers, spinach, cheese, ham and softly scrambled, herbed eggs encased in golden puff pastry. The other was a Gateau Basque, best described as a mix of a cake, cookie and pie, from the Basque region of France, filled with luscious almond pastry cream and homemade cherry jam. The third was a 12-layer milk chocolate macadamia nougatine torte that I can’t even remember the recipe for because I didn’t write it down.

They were all so lovely, aesthetically, and exquisite in flavor, that I did everything I could with the dead hard drive, bringing it from place to place, to see what they could retrieve from it.

Wouldn’t you know it, they were able to get most everything off of it EXCEPT the laborious treats and the Tourte Milanese, 12-Layer Nougatine Torte, and Gateua Basque.

why? Why? WHY?

I still hold on to that drive with the hope that, miraculously, someone will be able to find and extract even one photo of each. The truth is, the three that slay me were labor intensive o varying degrees, and I haven’t had the time or motivation to really dig into recreating all of them. Plus, I don’t often get good photos, but by some stroke of luck, the photos of these three extravagant goodies, including the prep photos, were some of the best I’ve ever taken. Again..

why? Why? WHY?

Here’s the kicker, a group of photos of a zebra cake I made in 2007, were all there, well, most of them (most of the prep photos didn’t make it) in perfect condition. These photos were from a time before a food blog was even a twinkle in my eye. Back then, I took quick shots with a point and shoot under kitchen lighting, and sometimes I used (gasp) a flash.

That said, they were also able to pull the above 2009 peanut butter cup brownies off the drive. One problem, though..just the one photo you see above, when there were originally 10 full size photos, including steps. Plus, this one had been cropped already.

Barring the photo quality, I decided to post it anyway. As I mentioned in my last post, I haven’t had the time to cook or bake anything really blog worthy, unless you consider boiled, boxed pasta with a simple tomato sauce and sloppy tuna sandwiches on wheat toast, blog worthy. In other words, I haven’t felt like spending hours sifting through 100 photos of sloppy tuna salad, and then hours of editing the best of the bad.

At least the ugly overnight oatmeal had a little pizzazz with the use of an almost empty peanut butter jar, and the near endless possibilities of add-ins.

So, here’s my zebra cake, in all its ancient point and shoot glory. I love the way the stripes came out, and it was quite moist and tasty, therefore – blog worthy. However, for some reason I cannot recollect nor fathom why I placed the zebra cake slices on top of a cheap cake turntable. It looks weird. Please look at the cool, zebra stripes and blur out the weird looking cake turntable. I’m uhh, kind of embarrassed!

So, please excuse these old zebra cake photos, but love this zebra cake. Not only is it cool to look at, but it’s moist, delectable and easy to make.

Having said all that, I want you all to make this zebra cake and impress everyone you serve it to It’ll look better on your plate and table than it does in these antiquated photos. Oh, and make the peanut butter cup brownies too! You will love them!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. I line the pan with foil or parchment paper, making sure there is overhang to use as handles to lift out the brownies, Spray/grease foil or parchment if you use this method.

Microwave chopped chocolate and butter for about 45 seconds. If not mostly melted, microwave for 20 more seconds. Stir until smooth. Whisk in the cocoa powder and espresso powder. Set aside. OR, melt in a double boiler.

Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, peanut butter and salt until combined. Whisk the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Stir in the flour until just combined. Fold chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups into batter. Pour mixture into pan, spread evenly and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula.

Bake approximately 35-40 minutes. Brownies will be slightly puffed and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out mostly clean. Cool to room temperature for about 2 hours. Cut into 1″ squares. Store in a tightly sealed container; preferably in the refrigerator.

Recipe from my scribble scrabble on a piece of paper. I cannot remember where I found it, but I did make some changes to it at the time. UPDATE: I found the original recipe I used when I first made it. Check it out HERE.

ingredients:

2¼ cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil or coconut oil.. or butter*

1½ cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons dark cocoa powder

1 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream (milk is fine too)

directions:

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

* If using butter, cream it together with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, until each one is fully incorporated. Add vanilla extract. If using oil, beat together the eggs, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy, then add vanilla extract.

Alternate adding the flour mixture with the yogurt or sour cream or milk, starting and ending with the flour. Do not over mix.

Now - This is where it all begins with the batter to make the zebra cake pattern.

Divide the batter in half, into two separate bowls, and add about 3-5 T of dark cocoa (I use Dutch Processed) to one half of the batter. If the white batter is too runny, add 3-5 tablespoons of flour to it. You want the white and chocolate batter to be close in viscosity.

To start..you'll be 'layering' 1 to 3 tablespoons of each batter, right on top of one another into a lightly greased 8 or 9-inch cake pan.(I add a parchment circle, and lightly grease that too). I used an 8-inch round cake pan.

Starting with the white batter drop 1-3 tablespoons on the bottom of the pan, then drop 1-3 tablespoons of the chocolate batter right on top of the white batter, in the middle, then 1-3 tablespoons of white on top of the chocolate, then repeat with the white batter in the middle of chocolate batter. Keep alternating batters in the center of each until you've used up both batters. It will look lopsided at several points..spreading more to one side of the pan, but by the time you're close to finished, it'll start to even out. It should look like a bullseye of white and dark batter, as you can see in the photo right below this recipe

The less tablespoons of batter you use, the closer together the stripes will be. I used 2 tablespoons batter of each per drop..but use up to 4 for thicker stripes.

Bake in a preheated 350F oven for anywhere from 35 to 45 minutes. A toothpick or skewer inserted in the center of the cake, should come out clean when it's done.

Try this with other flavors/colors, like matcha with the chocolate, pistachio paste, or raspberry syrup or ground, dehydrated raspberries. You can make this cake a kaleidoscope of stripe. Let your imagination run wild!

notes:

- If you have a foolproof yellow or white layer cake recipe you love and would prefer to use, add dark cocoa powder to one half of the whole recipe, and proceed with zebra cake batter pattern. If you like using cake mixes, (I don't, personally), or want to use one in a pinch, you will do the same - dark cocoa powder to half the batter, then proceed.butter* - I've heard that all butter prevents you from getting a tight zebra pattern like mine. It will still 'zebra', but not like what you see here.

Great quote you snuck in there…and I love this cake, I have seen them and never deducted how it was done…i may attempt this pattern one day. That damn bad boy brought tears to my eyes. My hubby will tell you I cry from the moment I walk into an airport. Saying goodbye is worse than death. Can’t wait for the next!

AHHHH!!!! This story, I just want it to go on and on. I’m hanging on your every word! I was getting all choked up. And now Gary’s calling?!? Can’t wait for the next part. Pleeeease don’t make us wait long 😉 On another note, that came is awesome!! I need to try making that. It looks so cool!

Very cool cake – would go well with some zebra’s paintings I own : ). Your story is getting better and better. The depths of the personality descriptions is great and of course leaving everyone hanging is cruel. My question is how did Gary get your phone number? Can’t wait to see what happens next…pass some cake please!

This zebra cake is so cool and I can’t believe I’ve never had one. It will be one of the frost thongs I bake when I get home. Oh, love this part of the BB story…maybe we can hear how this ends and you have another one to entertain us with?;)

Computers crashes are hell and feels like getting your purse stolen. Funny you have this ‘ancient’ recipe still around in pics lol. That is the best zebra or striped type of cake I have ever seen, what patience! Damn Lisa I am drenched i your tears lol. So sad I hope it ends well hopefully.

I check your blog like every week because I’m so hooked on this story. Your writing style is awesome, it’s such an easy, fun read. I feel like I’m actually watching it all unfold instead of reading it. Can’t wait for Part 14!

This is just a transitional header, until I decide where I want to go with it. You have to admit, the name was TOO LONG, and I’d rather look at clean, plain white than that ugly header I had for years. Not calling Jeter ugly..just the header lol Eff Cashman!

I made tourte milanese a few times so can really feel your loss! I like your `processing the best of the bland´ phrase! And really, pictures of that era would be great, for the story of course, not that I´m curious…lol

This is the most zebra-like looking cake of all the zebra-cakes I’ve seen :-).
I have to go now, but I will be back for the literary part of this post… Would be nice to have a slice of that zebra cake when I read…

Of course, the zebra cake is cool, but I am so excited to read the story!! I think I need to catch up on one or two past episodes, but I wanted to hurry and read this one as soon as I could see straight after all the travel! Very exciting and looking forward to the next installment. BOOK! 😀

This is the prettiest zebra cake I’ve seen. So glad you shared it. I’ve wanted to make a zebra cake for a while now but hadn’t heard good things about the taste. Now after your review I really need to move it to the top of my baking list.

Can I just say I also love you?? I’ve been a fan of your blog for 2 years now. With this story, I love you even more!!! So honest, raw and real, no fake sunny “love me” crap I see all over other blogs. Also, everything I’ve made from your blog is so yummy! Please don’t ever go away!

On Fridays, I share my favorite food finds in a series called Food Fetish Friday – and I love this post so I’m featuring it as part of the roundup (with a link-back and attribution). I hope you have no objections and I look forward to seeing what you create next…

Oh my word!!!! I am in love with this cake:-) Thank you for sharing the video, it was really fun to watch:-) I love how the recipe looks hard to make, but really is not that hard. BUT I think I would want another set of hands to help me in the process! I have had the problem of losing photos, it breaks my heart every time! I will cross my fingers and toes that someday you get those photos back:-) Hugs, Terra

This cake looks so fun!! I have been wanting to try this technique, but now that you have done it, I’ll just have to give it a go! 🙂 I hate when computers do that. I hate when I delete photos, too, which seems to happen to me all the time…

Where else can we get the best baking recipes and photos around? AND great banter and real live love-story memoirs with a healthy dose of humility to boot? Frankly, I’ve seen some of the so-called banter from other Food Bloggers and some seem a bit contrived, bless their hearts.

Wow Lis! Your zebra cake looks terrific!! I actually just made a zebra cake too!! But my pattern doesn’t show up as great as yours!! Yours is so uniform and perfect!!! I guess you’ve always had it in you even many years ago!! 🙂